


Friend of Pepper

by Whedonista93



Series: Red & Gold [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, F/M, Fem!Charlie Weasley, Gen, Pepper Potts is Gideon Prewett's Daughter, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 00:33:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17415554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93
Summary: Charlie grins and accepts Tony’s arm, lets him get her chair.The billionaire makes a face at his assistant. “I like her. She humors me.”Pepper gives him a Look. “You don’t pay me to humor you, Tony.”





	Friend of Pepper

“Pep! Go to dinner with me,” Tony whines.

Pepper doesn’t even look up from her Starkpad. “No.”

“But Pep-”

“No, Tony. I have work to do and I have plans when I’m done.”

“Plans?”

“Yes, plans. Not that it’s any of your business, but my cousin is in town and we’re going to dinner.”

“Let me take you both to dinner!”

“You just want to dig for information that is, once again, none of your business.”

“You wound me, Pep.”

Pepper looks up enough to glare at him.

He hold his hands up in surrender. “Fine, but now that I know you have family, I’m gonna dig ‘til I find them and then interrogate them about you anyway, and wouldn’t you rather I do it while you can at least be there to try to reign me in?”

“I hate you,” she informs him, completely deadpan.

He winks over his shoulder as he saunters out the door. “No, you don’t. Dress nice.”

***

Charlie looks up in surprise when the door to Pepper’s apartment opens. “You’re home early.”

Pepper nearly growls. “Tony is insisting on taking us both to dinner.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“We could’ve worn jeans and your mom’s jumpers to get pizza. Now we have to dress up. And he’s going to ask all kinds of nosy and invasive questions about both of us. Mostly me.”

Charlie grimaces. “Bollocks. I don’t even own anything appropriate to wear anywhere Stark might take us.”

Pepper rolls her eyes. “No sympathy. Worried about the dress, not her poor, dear cousin’s mental well-being.”

Charlie shrugs and grins. “You’re tough. The dress, however, is a problem. And somehow, I don’t think dragon hide boots are gonna cut it.”

“Hence me being home early. We have two hours and Tony’s black card. Let’s go shopping. Happy’s waiting with the car.”

***

It took Pepper all of five minutes to pick out a form fitting gray sheath dress and bright blue Louboutins. With less than an hour left until they’re supposed to meet Tony, Charlie is no closer to finding a dress than she was when they walked in.

“Oh, come on, Char, the green one looked stunning on you,” Pepper chides.

Charlie snarls. “Hell froze over the moment you even got me to try that blasted thing on. There’s no way I’m actually buying it.”

Pepper rolls her eyes. “Damn Hogwarts and their stupid classifications. You look gorgeous in that color.”

Charlie rolls her eyes back and scans the rest of the dresses they’d picked out. “Hand me that red one.”

“Sheath or flared skirt?”

“Flared.”

Pepper hands it over with a contemplative look. “With the gold heels and clutch we passed in the window a few shops down?”

“Fucking brilliant, cuz,” Charlie steps out and executes a little spin.

Pepper nods approvingly. “Okay, the green one was great, but _that_ is definitely the one.”

***

“Pepper!” Tony greets jovially. “I would say ‘friend of Pepper,’ but I do not see friend of Pepper. I didn’t rent out a whole restaurant just to get stood up, did I?”

“Of course not,” an accented voice responds from behind Pepper. “My mum’d skin me alive if I even thought about bein’ that rude.”

Tony tilts his head to view the woman over Pepper’s shoulder and lets out a low whistle. “Red and gold is officially my new favorite color combination.” He steps around his assistant and offers a hand. “Tony Stark.”

A calloused slides into his grip with a confident squeeze. “Charlie Weasley.”

Tony quirks one dark brow.

Charlie scoffs. “Fine, it’s Charlene, but even my mum doesn’t call me that.”

Tony takes her in slowly before nodding. “Yeah, Charlie fits better.” He gestures toward the sole table in the middle of the dining room before offering his elbows. “Ladies?”

Pepper rolls her eyes and steps toward the table on her own, letting a waiter pull her chair out. Charlie grins and accepts Tony’s arm, lets him get her chair.

The billionaire makes a face at his assistant. “I like her. She humors me.”

Pepper gives him a Look. “You don’t pay me to humor you, Tony.”

Tony sticks his tongue out at her before sitting himself. “So, Pep, what happened to that no family line? If you hadn’t already told me she was your cousin, I would’ve pegged this one as your sister.”

“How many times did JARVIS have to remind you I said cousin?”

Tony hold up his phone shamelessly. “He’s literally texting me right now.”

Pepper shakes her head as she lifts the menu. “You’re impossible. I never said I didn’t have any family. I said I didn’t have family _here_ and I didn’t talk to them much.”

Tony props his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand and turns his gaze to Charlie. “And why is that?”

Charlie mimics his position. “Because our family is made up of witches and wizards and her mum didn’t want her to grow up in the middle of our war.”

Tony blinks twice. “Right. Don’t tell me, then. You prefer red or white wine?”

Charlie grins. “Red.”

***

Pepper is giggly drunk by the time they stumble back through her apartment door.

Charlie guides her to the couch before kicking her shoes off and going for water.

“You like him, don’t you?” Pepper asks when she drops down on the couch.

Charlie shrugs as she passes a water bottle. “He’s charming.”

“I can’t believe you told him the truth,” Pepper giggle madly.

“He’s convinced I was yankin’ his chain.”

“Risky move. What if he believed you?”

“You could’ve admitted him to a mental hospital and staged a hostile takeover of his company.”

 

* * *

 

 

“I might like this look even better than the red dress,” a familiar voice comes from behind her. “Those leather pants do wonders for your ass. And I can almost see through the pirate shirt.”

Charlie spins, a smile stretching across her face. “Tony! The hell are you doing in Romania?”

“Honestly… no fucking clue.”

Charlie quirks a brow.

“I was partying with a group of Ukrainian models and I woke up in Constania. Medgidia, I think it was.”

“We’re outside of Istria, Stark.”

“So?”

“So they’re not exactly close.”

Tony shrugs. “I was in Romania, I knew you were in Romania, I had JARVIS pull your address from Pepper’s computer. Only there wasn’t an actual address, just the name of this little village, so I told him to pull camera footage and find out where in that little village, and then he tells me there isn’t a single camera in the whole village, which is a _travesty_ , by the way. There’s like no technology anywhere in this village. How do you _live_ like this? Anyway, that made me curious, and apparently I had taken my own jet to get from the Ukraine to Romania, so I flew in to a tiny little airport, rented a car and figured if I wandered the streets long enough I’d get lucky and run into you. This place is _tiny_ , figured I had pretty good odds.”

“You asked how to find me down at the pub.”

“I asked how to find you down at the pub.”

“That’s all a little stalkerish, Stark.”

“I prefer eccentric. Besides, it’s at least a little charming, right?”

“Depends.”

“On?”

“You buying my drinks tonight?”

“To the pub!”

***

Tony groans at the sunlight streaming through the window and across the unfamiliar bed. “The fuck was I drinking last night, Weasley? Can’t remember the last time I had a hangover like this.”

Charlie groans back and throws one of the pillows vaguely his direction from her sprawl on the sofa. “Too loud, Stark.” She shoves herself into a mostly upright position and glares at him over the back of the couch. “And it was firewhiskey.”

“How is there a liquor I’ve never heard of before?”

“The world has its secrets, Stark.”

“For the last time, it’s Tony.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tony squints at his window. “Pep?”

Pepper hums noncommittally over the stack of paperwork on Tony’s coffee table.

“I know I’m super drunk, but I’m pretty sure there’s an owl on my balcony.”

Pepper’s head snaps up and she peers over the couch. “JARVIS, open the balcony door please!”

The door slides open and the owl flies in and lands on a pile of Pepper’s paperwork. She absentmindedly offers the bird a cracker from the tray next to her paperwork as she unties the parchment from its leg. The owl flies back out and the doors slides silently shut behind it.

Tony flops back onto the couch. “Right, well, that was weird.”

Pepper is smiling at the paper in her hands.

“What?” Tony grumbles into the pillow his face is smashed into.

“Hm?”

“You’re smilin’ at the owl message.”

“Charlie is coming to visit.”

“Ah, shit.”

Pepper turns to him with an irritated huff. “I thought you liked Charlie.”

“I do,” Tony groans as he shoves himself into a sitting position, “but Charlie visiting means I have to sober up.”

“Are you kidding me? How many times have I asked you to stop drinking? But ‘Charlie’s visiting’ is all it takes?”

Tony chuckles. “Oh, Pepper, light of my life, no. It’s no fun to go drinking when you’re already drunk and after Romania, Charlie is my favorite drinking buddy. Because unlike you, she’ll go with me, and unlike Rhodey, she doesn’t try to make me stop, and unlike Happy, she doesn’t get weepy and clingy. She curses and dances. It’s fun.”

“We’re not in Romania, Tony. We’re in New York. Tabloids! Already gone. Shit.”

***

Charlie rolls out of bed and throws a hex toward the air horn that woke her on reflex. She straightens, wand raised, before she realizes it wasn’t Pepper like she assumed. “Bollocks. JARVIS, who did I just bat bogey?”

The AI almost sounds hesitant. “I am unclear what a bat bogey is, but the party in the room that is not yourself or Sir is Colonel James Rhodes.”

Charlie gorans. “Fucking hell.” She mutters a counter curse.

The colonel shoves to his feet. “What the hell was that?”

“Uh… something Tony’s working on?”

“Bullshit,” Tony objects.

Charlie spins toward him and he’s sitting up straight, hair and eyes both a little wild. “Shite. So… magic is real. Surprise.”

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie nearly leaps out of her skin when she steps out of her floor and sees Pepper, eyes red as though she's been crying, sitting on her sofa. “Pep?”

Pepper startles. “Charlie! Oh, thank Merlin! Where the hell have you been?!”

“I keep a cabin on the coast to monitor a few sea serpents. What's-”

“Tony is missing.”


End file.
